Australia triples its popularity with Chinese and Indian visitors (Media Release)

MEDIA RELEASE

6 February 2013

Embargo: 11.30 am (Canberra Time)

16/2013

Australia triples in popularity with Chinese and Indian visitors

Over the last ten years, people from China and India more than tripled their visits to Australia breaking all previous records, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

China went from 190,000 visits in 2002 to 630,000 in 2012, and India from 45,000 to 160,000.

Other countries in Australia's top ten visitors list include Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea & Hong Kong - meaning Asian countries are now seven of our top ten source countries for short term visits to Australia.

Assistant Director of Demography, Neil Scott said "Despite a high Australian dollar, Australia's short term visitor numbers were up by nearly five per cent since 2011 with 6.1 million short trips made to Australia - 270,000 more than we saw in 2011."

"New Zealand remains our biggest source of overseas short-term visitor arrivals with 1.2 million trips in 2012 or one in five visitors coming from there, but China is now in second place with one in ten, followed by the UK, the USA and Japan.

"The top five countries alone provided more than half of last years overseas visitors, and there were an extra 85,000 visits from China - an increase of 16 per cent. The next largest increase in visitor numbers came from Malaysia, with a nine per cent increase.

"New South Wales remained the most popular destination with a record 2.3 million overseas visitors in 2012, claiming more than one-third of all short-term visitor arrivals to Australia.

"This was followed by Queensland at one-quarter and Victoria with just over one-fifth.

"More than two-thirds - or about 4.3 million overseas visitors - came here for holidays or to see friends and family, and the peak age group for short term visitors was 25-29 year olds.

"Interestingly, the average amount of time people spent in Australia was 11 days, which has been constant over the last ten years," Mr Scott said.

Further information can be found in Overseas Arrivals and Departures, December 2012 (cat. no. 3401.0) available for free from the ABS web site <www.abs.gov.au>.

Media Note:

Short-term visitor arrivals are overseas visitors who intend to stay in Australia for less than 12 months.

Figures in this media release are based on original series.

Please ensure when reporting on ABS data that you attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or the ABS) as the source.

Short-term visitor arrivals, Australia - calendar years by country of residence

Country of residence (a)

2002

2007

2012

'000

%

'000

%

'000

%

1

New Zealand

790.1

16.3

1138.0

20.2

1201.2

19.5

2

China (excludes SARs and Taiwan Province)

190.0

3.9

357.6

6.3

626.5

10.2

3

UK, CI & IOM (b)

642.7

13.3

689.0

12.2

593.8

9.7

4

United States of America

434.5

9.0

459.7

8.1

479.0

7.8

5

Japan

715.5

14.8

573.0

10.2

354.0

5.8

6

Singapore

286.9

5.9

263.8

4.7

343.7

5.6

7

Malaysia

159.0

3.3

159.4

2.8

262.6

4.3

8

Korea Republic of (South)

189.7

3.9

253.3

4.5

196.7

3.2

9

Hong Kong (SAR of China)

150.9

3.1

147.0

2.6

176.7

2.9

10

India

45.0

0.9

95.2

1.7

159.3

2.6

All Other Countries

1237.0

25.6

1508.1

26.7

1752.2

28.5

Total

4841.2

100.0

5644.1

100.0

6145.6

100.0

(a) Top 10 source countries based on original estimates.
(b) United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man.

Short-term Visitor Arrivals, Australia - calendar years by age groups

2002

2007

2012

Age group(years)

'000

%

'000

%

'000

%

0–4

94.8

2.0

117.6

2.1

133.0

2.2

5–9

118.3

2.4

140.2

2.5

139.3

2.3

10–14

164.9

3.4

189.7

3.4

180.2

2.9

15–19

271.3

5.6

322.5

5.7

304.4

5.0

20–24

454.7

9.4

512.9

9.1

602.4

9.8

25–29

571.1

11.8

596.3

10.6

677.8

11.0

30–34

515.8

10.7

531.2

9.4

580.8

9.5

35–39

449.5

9.3

510.2

9.0

488.4

7.9

40–44

422.3

8.7

494.2

8.8

495.8

8.1

45–49

406.1

8.4

487.7

8.6

515.1

8.4

50–54

409.9

8.5

472.0

8.4

522.7

8.5

55–59

341.6

7.1

442.5

7.8

500.7

8.1

60–64

267.8

5.5

349.1

6.2

424.8

6.9

65–69

178.8

3.7

245.0

4.3

301.1

4.9

70–74

99.9

2.1

131.9

2.3

164.3

2.7

75 and over

74.5

1.5

101.1

1.8

114.9

1.9

Total

4841.2

100.0

5644.1

100.0

6145.6

100.0

Short-term resident departures, Australia - calendar years by country of destination

Country of destination (a)

2002

2007

2012

'000

%

'000

%

'000

%

1

New Zealand

597.3

17.3

902.0

16.5

1103.3

13.4

2

Indonesia

241.7

7.0

282.5

5.2

911.8

11.1

3

United States of America

299.1

8.6

479.0

8.8

863.6

10.5

4

Thailand

168.9

4.9

374.5

6.9

622.3

7.6

5

UK, CI & IOM (b)

318.3

9.2

428.4

7.8

489.1

6.0

6

China (excludes SARs and Taiwan Province)

136.9

4.0

284.5

5.2

381.1

4.6

7

Fiji

128.3

3.7

200.4

3.7

332.5

4.0

8

Singapore

149.2

4.3

221.5

4.1

306.5

3.7

9

Malaysia

109.5

3.2

181.2

3.3

259.4

3.2

10

Hong Kong (SAR of China)

140.5

4.1

206.5

3.8

229.4

2.8

All other countries

1171.3

33.8

1901.8

34.8

2720.9

33.1

Total

3461.0

100.0

5462.3

100.0

8219.8

100.0

(a) Top 10 source countries based on original estimates.
(b) United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man.

Short-term movement (a), visitor departures -
State where spent most time, 2012

State

'000

%

New South Wales

2,319.4

37.4

Victoria

1,298.3

20.9

Queensland

1,541.7

24.9

South Australia

189.4

3.1

Western Australia

668.0

10.8

Tasmania

55.1

0.9

Northern Territory

66.3

1.1

Australian Capital Territory

62.7

1.0

Other Territories

0.5

0.0

Total

6,201.5

100.0

(a) Figures for characteristics of short-term movements are based on a sample and are subject to sampling error. See paragraphs 10 and 11 of Explanatory Notes for more detail.

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